I am mulling over charging each of you a $25 entertainment fee for writing this column.

I have a lot of bills to pay and am looking at kids' college tuition within the next couple of years, and this will helping make ends meet. Are you all right with that?

No, of course you're not. I'm already being paid to do this, so what right do I have to assess you a fee over and above that?

But something similar is becoming an alarming trend in municipal government. Assess people fees for work already paid for by your taxes, done by municipal employees who were hired to do that job in the first place.

Such as the $25 booking fee levied on each person booked into Porter County Jail, and which Sheriff Dave Lain defends in the face of the State Board of Accounts telling him it is wrong.

It is wrong, the SBOA says, because the money collected is to go only for the personal benefit of the inmate, not to pay for the chemical addiction programs run by the county.

But I see it as wrong also because the charge hits people regardless of whether they are ever found guilty or even charged.

Everyone is looking for creative ways to raise revenue in these tough times, but whacking arrestees with the booking fine is making them pay for a "service" which an officer is already in the jail to perform. If Porter County books 10 people on a shift or no one, it's all the same to him.

It's not like they call in someone special from Olan Mills to take your portrait so you look good in the mug shot.

I doubt if they even offer you a choice of one of those library or fireplace backgrounds.

Want to raise cash by fining guilty people? OK, that's part of the punishment. Court cost assessments defray a portion of what it takes to run the system. Tack the booking fee on then, if you must.

But court costs are imposed at sentencing, after guilt has been determined. You don't get punished by sentence, fine or anything else if you're not guilty.

Porter County also wants registered sex offenders to pay $25 annually to re-register, although there is no cost associated with it. And it wants $5 every time they move to send an officer out to verify the new address.

It's not a tough sell. Who wants to defend sex offenders, even if they are being ripped off?

It's easy to pick on people who have been arrested or convicted of crimes.

But who's going to defend you when they come to charge your "fee?"

Not the governor. See why not on Monday.

The opinions are solely those of the writer. He can be reached at markk@nwitimes.com or (219) 933-4170.